Ireland's performance: Ireland ranks fourth on the global human development index despite coming 17th out of 18 rich countries for poverty levels, a new UN report has found.
The UN Development Programme's Human Development Report 2006 placed Ireland in fourth place on its development index, with only Norway, Iceland and Australia ahead for life expectancy, education and income levels. This represents a rise in Ireland's ranking from eighth last year and 17th in 2000.
The strength of the State's economic performance was the main factor in Ireland's rise through the rankings, with its annual rates of growth during the period 1990-2004 among the highest of the top 50 states in the development index.
The report also pointed to Ireland's low unemployment rate, school enrolment ratios, low infant mortality levels and its positive contribution to overseas aid.
However, the report put Ireland at 17th out of 18 selected high-income OECD countries in its human poverty index, with only Italy ranking lower.
This index was compiled by calculating life expectancy, adult literacy, long-term unemployment and risk of poverty.
Despite a broadly positive evaluation that put Ireland ahead of countries such as Sweden, the US and France as a place to live, several other indices showed Ireland faring worse than other highly-placed countries.
The report said Ireland's public expenditure on education, as a proportion of GDP, fell from 5 per cent in 1991 to 4.3 per cent in 2002-04. This was the lowest of all countries in the top 20 of the development index except Japan.
On unemployment, the report noted that the proportion of young people without a job was 8.3 per cent, almost double the national total across all age groups.
The report also shows that in Ireland women tend to earn significantly less than men. Measured in purchasing power parity terms in US dollars, it found that women here earned an estimated average of $26,160 compared to the men's average of $51,663.
On a separate "gender empowerment measure" the document places Ireland in 17th place, pointing out that the number of seats in parliament held by women was only 14.2 per cent of the total, considerably lower than Sweden (45.3 per cent), Finland (37.5 per cent), Iceland (33.3 per cent) and the Netherlands (34.2 per cent).
Frank O'Donnell, of the UN Development Programme, said many of the findings reflected previous studies, but some ought to raise concern.
"The indices that do cause concern here are also in some manner similarly reflected in other reports, like the OECD's economic survey of Ireland, which came out earlier this year.
"So if we're to look at these various sources we can say that educational outcomes are broadly in line with the OECD average - this is good but it's still far below those achieved by the best performers in the OECD."
Investment in education as a percentage of GDP was "not what it should be", while there were also notable indications of social inequality.
"If you look at social inequality, Ireland still has a way to go. It has a way to go in terms of youth unemployment, which is twice the national average."